Elemental Shamans
by momijikk
Summary: Life. Sacrifice. Lies. Truth. Nothing can be taken for granted. Nothing can be discredited. Pandora's box is on the table. Locked. In his hand is the key. -UNDER CONSTRUCTION-


**Elemental Shamans**

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Chapter 1: _Beneath the Stars_

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Summary: Dark, alone, confused, hungry. Pain. Immense pain. Maybe should stop that, make sure it doesn't kill. No, no time to think about it, just have to wing it. Have to get out. Have to escape before they fulfill their promise; one that's six years too late. Have to hurry, have to hurry, have to get out...!

Disc: I don't own Shaman King. I only own the idea and the OCs. Oh, and I'm very sorry about this, but I'm changing some of the chapter titles...Sorry, I just realized that they didn't sound all that right...

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The purple-haired shaman was outside, sitting out on the grass and gazing up at the twinkling stars above, the bright, sad full moon taking up most of the sky. He let out a slow, deep breath as he drank in his surroundings, sitting on the cool grass, its warm and welcoming scent filling the quiet, still air.

These were his favorite kind of nights.

On nights like this, he was just lost in the tranquility of his surroundings; however, his trusted Kwan Dao was near him at all times. No matter how relaxed he could get, he was always ready, alert, and itching for battles and rematches. The moon was bright and was the only light he had, besides the twinkling stars. Even if he hated it with a passion when the moon was out and at its fullest, as it disrupted his view of the stars, he could enjoy that too, on a diplomatic basis.

_'Mas...ter...Ma-Master...Re-Ren...'_

Suddenly, the bushes behind him began to rustle violently. He was on guard in a matter of seconds with the sound, gripping his weapon and turning his torso towards it, ready for the attack. But, as it always would have been for him, the rustling quieted, slowly fading out. He lessened his grip on his weapon, glaring at the bush for raising a false alarm.

_'__Probably just an animal.'_ Shaking his head and looking irritated at the chance of a battle gone, the teenage boy inwardly sighed. _'...But...'_ His mind was beginning to wander on him; that could have meant he needed more sleep. He didn't usually dwell on such pointless curiosities. _'What was that voice then? Where could it have come from? Wasn't that _my _name?'_

As soon as the thoughts had formed completely in his mind, a limp figure was thrust onto him from the bushes, knocking him face first into the grass and dirt. Some unknown force had thrown it onto him, a cruel joke, perhaps. He cursed under his breath in Chinese for a moment, and waited to see if this limp body was an actual person, living or not, or something else.

"...Oh...My aching...head..." The limp body groaned, then trailed off, numb to the shaman beneath it and the rest of its surroundings. Whether or not it was even supposed to be alive was a mystery to the momentarily pinned teen underneath. "...Shiishu...Munn..."

_'Ah, it _is_ alive.'_ Smirking at another chance for battle, the shaman summed up his situation. He recognized the voice as a girl's voice from her tone; she even sounded as old as him, which would make the fight even better. _'...Wait. She could just be a normal human. That would not make for an interesting fight at all...'_

And if he killed her like he did that officiant Chrom, then he would have the stupid, annoying authorities on his tail. That is, if they could trace the murder back to him, which he highly doubted their inferior intellects could accomplish.

But that had been different. That was a shaman he had fought, and he could do worse to this girl if she wasn't a shaman. Sighing outwardly this time at his misfortune, he started to push her off of him, though he stopped as soon as his hand reached her back. Warm liquid was engulfing his hand, and she flinched a bit at him touching her.

Shaking himself out of it, he pushed her off quickly, only to sigh quietly to himself at her landing, which had made a dull thud. She was not far from where he was laying, but it still wasn't what he had exactly meant to do._ 'Pushed her too hard.' _Shaking his head again at his basic observation, he continued to watch the girl, waiting for her to move or get up. When she persisted in lying there like she was dead, another thought struck him. _'If she got mortally wounded more so than she was, it's not my fault.'_

He put his left fist on his hip as he examined his right hand, the one he had pushed her off with. It was completely dyed red with blood. His eyes widened at the true meaning of this, that she might have already been in a fight, and now he was there to take the blame of injuring her. He cursed out loud in Chinese at whoever would dare to commit this heinous crime against him, and vowed to kill whoever had done this.

"A-As the...Mma...sst...Nn?" She mumbled, her eyes just barely slitting open. She seemed to sense that he was there, as she tried to speak again. "...I-I'm..." She started to try to sit up in her position so she wasn't breathing in the grass or dirt, fumbling a bit and almost falling back down twice. She really was in a sorry state by the looks of it; Ren's golden eyes dulled at the chance of a battle gone once again. "I'm really...Really sorry about this..." She apologized, and once she sat up in a stable position, she bowed her head to him. He lowered his eyes at her, completely annoyed. Well, at least she knew her manners and her place. "I-I was...a-ano..."

"You better be sorry." He scolded her, folding his arms over his chest, subtly pointing out that she was in no condition to try and fight him. She may have been so out of it that she could try and attack him. That would be interesting. "Trying to put the blame on me for this, I swear..."

"...Huh?" She asked, tilting her head. Her brilliant blue eyes were dull, most likely from the blood loss, and it looked like she couldn't open them all the way. Like she was tired. "...Blame? What blame?"

She was processing everything like she was tired, too. "You placed the blame on me for...Hoping to..." He sighed again in exasperation, giving up trying to reason with a person suffering blood loss. "Ugh, never mind. Forget about it."

She stared up at him blankly, still not fully registering what he was saying. It was taking her a lot longer than was usually expected to wake up from her black out. For a moment, Ren hung in limbo about the different courses of action he could take. He could leave her there and pretend to have never seen it, but she had already seen him, ruling that option out. He could kill her to keep her quiet; or he could help her, which was the most unfathomable of all of his options.

So why was that the most logical choice to accept?

Walking nearer to her and holding out his hand to her, he made sure to avert his gaze to a different spot on the floor and glared hard. By seeming intimidating, maybe that would get him somewhere. "But I guess I do feel just a bit sorry for you since you are here." He smirked as she took his hand hesitantly, then he pulled her on to his back with ease. Beginning to walk back to his house, he inwardly shuddered at the feeling of her blood going down his legs, seeping into his clothing as well. He may have been comfortable with the red liquid, but not when it felt like it was slipping from his own being. "Oh, and I need to know your name. That way it won't be some stranger I just helped out. Also, I can explain better to my sister once she gets home."

"Yes, you're right..." She looked at his shoulder in embarrassment, also not able to lift her head all the way. Actually, he was a little surprised that she hadn't questioned about his parents. "Ah, ano, I-I'm terribly sorry about that, it's...It's K-Kristal..." She found her footing suddenly and staggered off his back, walking very shakily in the direction he had been walking earlier. Apparently, she felt like she didn't need his help, anyone's help. Too bad she was in worse shape than she thought she was in. "...I-I'm sorry...For the trouble...Maybe I should...?"

..._Disappear_...

He shook his head at her, quickly closing the distance she had managed to create between them in the short time she was walking on her own and grasped her shoulder to stop her. She looked slowly back at him, eyes still mostly glazed, most likely from the sxertion of walking. "Idiot, stop walking if you don't want to die of blood loss! You're bleeding too profusely to be doing anything at this time." Even staring at her like she was an idiot was not getting much of a response. After receiving a blank stare for several minutes, he decided that he actually had to repeat himself. "You don't realize that your back is bleeding? Imbecile, you shouldn't move too much or you will die and I will get pinned with the blame and this process will have come around full circle."

It still took her a few more minutes to process his harshness and work out an answer in her head. He had never suffered blood loss this bad, but by the looks of things, she wasn't so close to death that it was completely life-threatening. "...It...It is?" She asked slowly, genuinely surprised. A groan of annoyance almost leaked past his lips at her stupidity, but he killed it in his throat. Now wasn't the time; it was no fun to mock someone who could barely understand you. Interested now, she twisted as far around as she could, though he couldn't see how that wouldn't agitate her wounds, and wiped some of the blood off of her damp shirt, once a nice blue color. "...I...I am..."

He rolled his eyes at her as she bowed her head deeply in apology, again, and decided to ignore how much this was tempting him to just finish her off. At least manners seemed to matter to this girl.

"I-I'm sorry...I-I hadn't known...I didn't...Didn't feel, and...And..." Seeming to have lost her train of thought, Ren rolled his eyes again and her stupidity, by now convinced that she really was stupid and it just wasn't from the blood loss, and turned around and crouched slightly so she could get onto his back easier. She looked genuinely shocked again. "...Thank you...K-Kind...S-Sir...?"

Grunting off the polite tone of gratefulness in her voice, he braced himself against the ground as she climbed back onto his back. He only had to help her a little, but by this point he had to assume that she was spent. "No problem, really. I do this every day." Since it wasn't likely that she could catch his sarcasm at this time, he let out a singe dry chuckle at his own cruel joke. "No, really, I have no idea why I'm being so kind. On a normal day, I would have killed you; you're lucky that I was in a good mood today, because if I hadn't been, then by now you would have been dead already."

"...Oh..." Looking down, now apparently fascinated by his shoulder, he could see that she was visibly frightened of him. He allowed himself a small smirk at the fact that his intimidation could still reach her in her hazy state. Good. "...I'm...I'm very sorry...About-About this, then..."

"Keep saying sorry and I really might kill you." He warned, glaring at her from the side. This was not a joke in the slightest, and at least she could understand that. She lowered her head more, still deathly frightened of him, so he decided to leave the matter at that. Better that she feared him rather than adored him, anyways. "...Damn. There's going to be blood all over the floor; you'll be cleaning it up yourself once your wounds are wrapped up and your able to be up and about, do you understand?"

She nodded slightly, wordlessly, gulping thickly from fear. Her eyes could not widen from her tired, blood deficient state, but he could still feel the fear radiating off of her, and that made everything worthwhile. He rather enjoyed it when others would cower at him from his intimidating composure. It served as a reminder to others that he was a warlord and that no one could ever hope to beat him to himself. Even his one loss was a complete mistake. In his mind, it did not even count as a real battle.

But she was almost...child-like. It was really beginning to weird him out, along with the fact that she was this badly wounded and still managing to hang onto consciousness. It must have been a sorry excuse for a fight; it was more of a beating. He could tell, since it all seemed to be her own blood and no one else's.

So, whoever had beaten her had really gone to town, not even allowing her a single hit in retaliation, realized that they could have been caught, and then tossed their problem onto an unsuspecting civilian in order to rid themselves of their burden. They did not realize that unburdening themselves onto this particular civilian, a Chinese warlord, was not the best idea in the world, as he would have his payback, all in due time.

"...You do realize that in order to fix you up, I'll have to take you to my house, right?"

"...Ye...yes...ss..." She replied, slower than before and more drawn out. She dropped her head lightly on his shoulder, starting to close her eyes. He could feel his entire body tensing hostilely at the overly familiar contact, but decided against rash action. By this point, turning back would be as pointless as starting this whole mess up had been. "...tha-thank...you...again-n for...for save...ing...me..."

Ren sighed at her again as she fell asleep, wondering how she could somehow find comfort in the complete stranger she had just met and who was carrying her off to his house without knowing whether he would treat her wounds or not. Whoever she was, she was a complete idiot to trust so faithfully in absolutely nothing.

And he was an idiot for actually wanting to help her out.

"I'm getting weak..." He scolded himself, shaking his head vaguely. There weren't any excuses he could use to prove to himself otherwise. That was just the way his life was. Adjusting his grip on the slumbering girl before continuing, he made sure that the blood was not going to ruin any of his clothes. It was not. "Why must I have grown so weak?!"

He walked on down the empty street until he reached the old house he had bought and was staying at, making sure to be aloof that none saw him with this girl and take it the wrong way. He was safe once inside the door, and sat down for a moment as he waited for silence again, watching the sunrise in the horizon through the one window that he had. No words were spoken, nothing could have interrupted his silence until he finally stood back up and carried this mysterious Kristal over to his couch. Time to start on her wounds.

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Two figures appeared outside of the old house, having been hiding in the bushes so that no one could sense their presence, and the two stared a long time at the house directly across from them. Both had a wavery aura, like spirits, and both were male.

The actual spirit, floating a few inches off the ground, had spiked blood red hair, pitch black eyes, and a thin, frail-looking form, like he had not eaten anything for almost two weeks. He wore a ripped black shirt that barely hung on his small shoulders and almost completely covered his hands, ragged black pants that ended at his ankle, his feet not appearing in his ghostly form, and wore chains around his chest, arms, and legs. Around his neck was a bead choker that rotated from black to white.

The other, a living being but with hazy eyes as if he was possessed, was considerably shorter than the spirit, with short light brown hair and light brown eyes glazed over by a bloody red. He wore a plain white button-up shirt with a red tie, short green pants, and black shoes. The spirit possessing him had to be related in order to achieve this; the nearby soul knew this and was only half proud of it.

But as of right now, he was infuriated beyond all comprehensive or realistic thought.

"Manta, shouldn't we do something?!" Almost willing to let caution fly to the wind, the spirit whirled on the possessed boy, hands clenching and unclenching from the pent up anger. His distressed, angry, hissed out inquiry was met with a blank gaze that only served to exasperate him even more. He was young in both appearance and voice. "Why the hell are we leaving her with that man?"

"...Calm down, brother..." The possessed one cautioned, speaking with the regular voice Manta usually had, light, happy, and that of a teenage boy's, while the other was deep and dark, like an older man. The two had merged into one, sounding echo-like, from the possession . "This is an important part in her Time Stream that will lead her to this young one."

He smirked at Spiral's distraught expression, finding how easily he was worried quite amusing. But this wasn't the time to find such a trivial thing of interest. Right now, they had to focus on their discussion at hand, lest the spirit lose all sense of control and attack the house they were standing outside of. He had already seen that there was no holding the rambunctious spirit back.

"...This one whose body I posses, Manta, needs to be trained. His powers are untapped, yet I sense that they are great. He would make a fascinating...Apprentice."

"...That's all?!" At the nod he received from the possessed boy, the spirit crossed his arms and looked away huffily. He could not avoid the blatant truth any longer. "...Okay, fine. " Forced to give in, the spirit sighed long and airily, disappointed that nothing else could be done. Hazed red eyes turned to look up at him with a questioning gaze, slightly surprised at how easily the younger boy gave in to the one thing he hated the most. "We'll wait for the beginning..."

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KK: Okay, I know I already said that the final edit was done, but then I made the mistake of going back to try and ready it. So, big surprise!, I wanted to re-edit it all. And so I did, and that's where this comes from. Of course, I had to tighten Ren's character up a little bit in the end, but all for the better, right? And I had to add more description, since the rest of it seemed lame. Agh, I need to stop being so edit crazy...


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